Hey, Cat Savvy DU'ers -- hello from Nikita's kids! (Picture Heavy)

[Samantha]

29. They are beautiful in every way -- they way they look, the way they act, the way they love

Thank you for the compliment.

Elise is extremely shy. For the longest time, she would not come near me or let me pet her. But she would watch the interaction between me and Bo, then me and Sunny, and then Dane, and eventually Monet and I could see the look in her eye changing. She wanted to be petted. She wanted to be treated as they were being treated but she was just too scared.

Then one day she couldn't stand it any longer. She jumped from the couch and flopped down in front of me, belly up. She wanted her belly rubbed. I was so stunned I almost cried. I knew it took great courage for her to make that move. I kept caressing her and telling her how beautiful she is.

Today when I go into their room, she steps right up with the rest of them and wants to be petted. She is so wonderful. Very low maintenance. Happy to lie on the back of the couch and look out the window. Plays with the others. But she has the one hilarious quirk. She is a zealot about the litterboxes. If Dane or Sunny gets in one of them, she walks over after about a minute and inspects the job they have done in covering up their business. She is never satisfied they have done it well. She hops in and starts scraping that litter all over the newly-deposited business. But she has such long legs, sometimes she is so zealously scraping litter on the "deposit" she actually flings the clump out of the box and onto the floor. It is so goofy funny.

Once when Dane was still in the process, she climbed in the box right behind him and watched him diligently. He did his cover-up as usual, but she stayed in there an additional 3 minutes after he left finishing the job to perfection.

I could hear her thinking: "Hey, I have to sleep in this room too and I don't want it smelling up!"

Sam